Chapter 07:

Artificial Intelligence and the Emergent Turbulent Markets -

New Challenges to Corporate Ethics Today

Executive Summary
Artificial intelligence (AI) is Intelligence displayed by machines, in contrast with the natural intelligence
(NI) displayed by humans and other animals. It is also known as machine intelligence (MI) and is used because
a machine mimics the cognitive functions that humans associate with human ability such as logical reasoning,
learning and problem solving. From Facebook’s automatic tagging suggestions to driverless cars, AI is rapidly
progressing, and therefore, the ethical and moral question now is not whether AI should exist or not. AI exists
and it is already helping in improving various aspects of life such as health, safety, convenience and overall
standard of living. AI can replace or substitute routine mechanical, repetitive, boring jobs to free and unleash
human creative and innovative talent to big thinking projects and humanizing work and society. Artificial
intelligence can provide digital assistance in routine day-to-day tasks, detect cancer, diagnose rare diseases and
even prevent car crashes. AI can replace jobs, however, but not human work. Work as a duty, self-actualization
and destiny will always continue, if not on the shop or office floors or boardrooms, at home, gardens, places of
prayer and worship, labs of creativity and innovation, in society and civilizations. While AI may indirectly free
human talent for more meaningful and creative work, it can rarely participate in higher purposes such as
creating bonding and belonging groups, in creating forgiving and compassionate communities, in drumming up
small business, startups and corporations, and in harmonizing and humanizing this planet and cosmos for bliss
or happiness. This Chapter on AI, while investigating its market turbulence, will go beyond the legal aspects to
ethical, moral and spiritual (LEMS) dimensions and sacred opportunities of AI.

Case 7.1: Microsoft Launches “TAY”

Besides the arguably wanton use of AI since 2011 as recorded above, there are other controversial forages of
AI. On March 23, 2016, Microsoft Corporation launched ‘Tay’, a Twitter chat bot which used artificial intelligence
to understand and make conversations with people on Twitter. It was a machine learning project which was designed
for human interactions. However, mere 24 hours within the launch of the bot, Microsoft had to start ‘making
adjustments’ to the tweets which were being posted by the bot! Why this happened?

The bot had started to make vindictive responses and derogatory remarks, learning from the conversations that
people were having with it. Microsoft kept deleting its tweets, as it became more and more racially abusive, until
they had to finally shut it down within an extremely short span of time.

Incidents like these, make us ponder, whether Artificial Intelligence is actually the boon or bane that people
consider it to be? Do we, as humans, completely comprehend exactly what lies in store in the world or machine
learning and artificial intelligence? And whether do we have a plan, in case things go kaput!?

Case 7.2: Sophia is a Citizen of Saudi Arabia

On October 25, 2016, a female robot named Sophia was given citizenship in Saudi Arabia. The creator, AI
developer David Hanson, had to make multiple iterations before Sophia could be released in the public. Sophia is
capable of understanding emotions and responding accordingly. Her objective is to protect humanity. Hanson has
also said that he will continue to work on Sophia and release subsequent robots with enhanced capabilities.

Until a few years ago, a major drawback of AI and robotics was their inability to learn from their
mistakes/experiences. While a robot would be ideal for a repetitive task such as the production line of a factory, it
would fail in more dynamic situations. But all that seems to be a thing of the past. Presumably just a PR activity by
Hanson, Sophia has evoked more anxiety in the minds of people than excitement. The world had put a ban on

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human cloning because nobody could fully understand the consequences of it. Robots with artificial intelligence fall
right in the same alley as human clones.

Would such a citizenship entail the robots all the rights like Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights grants to every citizen – ‘take part in the conduct of public affairs,’ ‘vote and to be elected,’ and
‘have access, on general terms of equality, to public service in his country.’? Until humans have answers to every
such question, artificial intelligence, machine learning and any other such term used to describe this phenomena,
could be as controversial and enigmatic as it could be useful.

Link References
https://www.business.com/articles/john-barnett-artificial-intelligence-job-market/
https://www.economist.com/news/business/21727093-humans-will-supply-digital-services-complement-ai-artificial-
intelligence-will-create-new
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/science/17jeopardy-watson.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.alanturing.net/turing_archive/pages/reference%20articles/what%20is%20a%20turing%20
machine.html
https://www.fierceretail.com/operations/amazon-introduces-warehouse-robots
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/07/google-waymo-announces-fully-autonomous-ride-hailing-
service-uber-alphabet
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnewman/2017/09/12/your-artificial-intelligence-is-not-bias-
free/2/#27df11b66137
http://time.com/4080577/artificial- intelligence-risks/ accessed on 10th November, 2017
https://jsteinhardt.wordpress.com/2015/06/24/long-term-and-short-term-challenges-to-ensuring-the-safety-of-ai-
systems/, accessed on 10th November, 2017

Introduction
Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a science was first formally recognized in a workshop or conference on
the campus of Dartmouth College in 1956. i The term Artificial Intelligence was first coined and used by
John McCarthy in the same Conference. Even though AI is being studied since decades, humans are still
trying to understand AI because it is still largely nebulous and intriguing. People in this conference who
predicted the widespread availability of machines in less than a decade were given hefty sums to realize
the vision. The participants in this conference included Ray Solomonoff, Oliver Selfridge, Trenchard
More, Arthur Samuel, Allen Newell and Herbert A. Simon, all of whom would create important programs
during the first decades of AI research. Consequently, the years spanning from 1956-74 were a golden
period for Artificial Intelligence as the base for many of the functionalities was formed during this period.

Artificial intelligence entails the ability of a machine to think on its own. It could be something as
small as a computer using algorithms to play games to something as large as robots repairing machines in
space. AI and robotics can truly change the way we use computers and the reasons that we use computers
for. It has become all pervasive, where even every-day simple objects are being turned into computer
enabled ‘smart’ objects. Artificial Intelligence, along with the advent of ‘Internet of things’ will soon be
present everywhere around us. It would become synonymous to the atmosphere we live and breathe in.
And if not controlled properly, it would not be long before it controls and out-humans us.

Artificial Intelligence is a much more advanced form of technology which might not require any
form of coding for its functioning and could be taught or trained to perform specific functions as per
requirement. Most significant use of AI is that it performs frequently computerized tasks reliably. AI is
different from hardware or robotic automation or mechanical automation. It improvises the products and
adds intelligence to the products. Most of the AI products we use are improvised with AI capabilities. An
often cited example is Siri that was added as a new feature in Apple products. AI works through

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progressive learning algorithms. It finds structures, regularities, and thus using algorithms it learns how to
play chess or recommends products online. It analyzes huge chunks of data that may have many hidden
layers. The models become more accurate with the help of data.

Four of the economies of the world – China, India, Japan, and USA account for just over half of the
world’s total wages and almost two-thirds the number of employees associated with activities that are
technically automatable by currently demonstrated AI technologies. Accordingly, the legal, ethical, moral
and spiritual (LEMS) responsibilities of these nations are stepped up.

By 2025, Artificial Intelligence is expected to spread in every walk of life. It has been predicted that
by 2040, artificial intelligence will become virtually unstoppable and humans could lose both faith and
control, and some may even prematurely retire out of decision making processes. Machine learning,
unlearning and re-learning capabilities would have advanced so much by then that it might be difficult
now to determine the possible changes in future. There are speculations (e.g., Elon Musk, see below) that
AI could lead to the cause of third world war. ii

AI has reduced errors in jobs where precision is a must. Their metal bodies and superior perception
make them suitable for performance in more hostile and specific environments where human effort would
not produce any effort. They are also doing away with repetitive jobs. Nowadays, call centers are being
chiefly manned by robots that are trained to respond to customer queries. The automobile industry is the
one most notably being impacted by these developments. Nowadays, self-driving trucks promised by
Mercedes and Tesla look to reduce the costs of trucking companies by a huge margin. Similarly, self-
driving cars that are being researched by Google and Tesla may also change how cab-hailing services like
Uber conduct their operations. It is also finding many uses in the medical domain, where it is taking care
of complex operations too subtle for human hands. Finally, being a machine, the advantages of no breaks
and lesser permanent costs associated with them make them a very fruitful investment for a company to
consider.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial Intelligence, as defined earlier in Chapter 01, is a branch of computer science dealing with
the simulation of intelligent behavior in computers or the capability of a machine to learn and imitate
intelligent human behavior. Although most people use artificial Intelligence, robotics and automation
interchangeably, they are very different. While robotics and automation use sensors and manual
programming for their functioning, AI mostly – but not always – uses an algorithm by which it is able to
learn a process on its own. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is Intelligence displayed by machines, in contrast
with the Natural Intelligence (NI) displayed by humans and other animals. It is also known as Machine
Intelligence (MI) since it mimics the cognitive functions that humans associate with human ability such as
logical reasoning, learning and problem solving.

From Facebook’s automatic tagging suggestions to driverless cars, AI is rapidly progressing. Hence
the question now is not whether AI should exist or not. AI exists and it is already helping in improving
various aspects of life such as health, safety, privacy, vigilance, convenience and overall standard of
living. Artificial intelligence can provide digital assistance in routine day-to-day tasks, detect cancer,
diagnose rare diseases and even prevent car crashes and corporate frauds.

The world shall face challenges in investing in solutions and technologies that benefit humanity
instead of destroying it. With a systems approach, it is acknowledged that the stakeholders in a system
need not necessarily have a linear causative relationship. The interrelationships can be circular and
complex and their influence and effects will need to be understood holistically.

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 AI has the potential of empowering the society by using predictive analysis. Hyderabad based
Advanced Data Research Institute (ADRIN) is developing an algorithm which will help police to foresee
crime patterns by analysis of crime data. Imagine a world where the roads are safe for women, where the
automatic sensors in home send text messages to police in case of an assault on women at home in a
domestic feud. This has serious impact on women empowerment. Imagine a world where complex
technical information is passed on to students in their own native language. Imagine a world where court-
decisions are fast tracked, a world where the banks are able to sanction loans to the right person at the
right time. AI can enable all of this and help create a better society at large with happier citizens.

Undoubtedly AI is going to impact our world in various material ways, but what will be its associated
impact on human values and ethics is something which needs to be discussed at length. If an over-
empowering agent is under the control of a few, that few will have endless responsibilities. Fortunately
for AI, its partners of creation are from diverse parts of the world and AI works on the principle of
integration of data. Hence, we feel that this phenomenon is more likely going to break the boundaries of
human inequality and poverty rather than further create one. We also believe that rather than making
people stupid or lazy in the longer run due to excess leisure dependency, AI will be rather smart to guide
people to go for a run, or take an improvement course based on current performance at work (or perhaps
better teach them themselves). Since, people would be healthier and heartier, we expect them to be more
ethical in life.

The Fundamental Essence and Operations of AI

It is said that technology, or even the very system that develops out of a combination of thousands of
interacting forces, all interplaying and modulating and affecting the other’s effects often tends to bestow
upon the resulting system characteristics of their own. As a consequence, while it is true that any system,
thus developed organically, as indeed most systems are, is greater than the sum of all its parts, one can
still locate those characteristics of the parent factors within the final systems, be it in traces in many cases.
This is one important thing that we ought to keep in mind while studying such phenomena as Artificial
Intelligence.

The very foundations of civilization has required, before all, one essential thing - the coming together
of multiple individuals, as a community to live together, to participate in a cooperative system, where we
all “look out for each other” and the others do the same for us, and basically, the entire society is based
upon a system of participation at its very core. Every single individual is party to the benefits that any
society develops and therefore is expected to do the best she/he can towards contributing for the
betterment of the society. This has always been the basis of human civilization. Under such a system, one
of the most essential things was keeping of records.

The proper, smooth operation of such a society depended largely on the society being able to
maintain a record of the individuals comprising of that society. This record keeping could have been for
many purposes - for the distribution of welfare such as food or medicines, for collection of taxes, for
general census conducted by many kings or commanders of states across the tribes and societies even
today. You had to keep a record of everyone to know them, to help them, to serve them, to administer
them properly, or to invade them, or to capture them, or even to oppress them. Indeed, since time
immemorial, data has been collected about everyone and everything around us: the movement of the stars,
the migratory patterns of birds and fishes, the changes in weather, the movement of water levels in rivers
and ponds, etc. This could have been commissioned for purposes of peace, charity or general
administration or even for the purposes of inflicting harm upon one’s adversaries or oppositions.

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 Humans have always collected data about their surroundings to make their lives a little bit better. It
could be said that this idea was the basis of Artificial Intelligence today, as quite literally, data (big data,
to be more precise) forms the very backbone of the AI industry. The ever increasing need for data and
record keeping is driven by the need of law and order, and perhaps even the demand to make the AI
better.

Data recording, as argued, was essential to let civilization happen and prosper to the heights it has
today. The better records one has of their surroundings, the more data that any system has, the better
society functions. This is true of not just the AI systems, but of everything, living or otherwise. Once this
need for data was realized, a need for two things could have happened - make the process of collecting
data easier, and make the process of analyzing that data and presenting the information in a simple form
easier.

The process of making things easier and efficient involved in large part, taking care that there be no
errors in the data collected, processed and the analysis thus derived. This meant that there had to be as
little chance of error as possible. It is common knowledge that mechanical systems, if taken care of
properly, can never falter at their job. If a machine, be it a wheel, or an airplane, has been designed to do
something, it will always do its job perfectly 100% of the times, unless there has been wear and tear
because of lack of care from the human side or if it has deliberately been tampered with. Thus, since time
of the creation of machines as simple as a lever and a fulcrum, the purpose has always invariably been
making life easier for humans. In fact, that is what makes us humans different from animals - the fact that
we can modify our environment to suit us by creating machines. The opposable thumb principle states
this exactly: the fact that we evolved into the present homo sapiens because we were able to leverage our
opposable thumbs to create tools (essentially, machines) to make our jobs easier. iii

An important objective in the field of AI was to allow communication between computers through
natural languages like English. The inputs given to the process were some nodal words such as fish,
animal, water etc. The output would be a semantic net which would be a collection of nodes and the verbs
connecting the nodes called as concepts so as to form meaningful sentences. The processes that were
employed were a few initial set of grammar rules that would link nouns and verbs and this algorithm was
used to frame sentences by linking nouns and verbs. The outputs to the process again help to categorize
the inputs quickly so that if a similar problem arises, solution is faster. Thus, the circular relationship
helps in solving the problems faster. Again, this kind of relationship between processes and output is a
necessary condition because the optimal output is a function of the kind of processes involved.

A Timeline of Major Advancements in AI

 Robotics 1972: - The world‘s first humanoid robot named WABOT-1 was completed in the year 1972 at
Waseda University, Japan. Various sensors installed in the robots allowed it to have limb movements as
that of the humans and perform a number of tasks. Its vision system allowed it to measure distances and
objects. A language processing system also allowed it to communicate with a person in Japanese.

 1980s: Massive Public Sector Investment in AI: Massive database creation happened that would contain
information normal persons were in command. In the 1980s many governments allocated huge sums of
money to write computer codes and build machines that could carry on conversations, translate
languages, and interpret pictures and reason like human beings. For e.g., Japan set aside $850 million
to its “5th generation” project while UK assigned $350 million for the Alvey project.

 Boom of 1980-87: Artificial Intelligence programs boomed in the 1980s with the adoption of an AI
program called - expert systems. Knowledge became the focal point of all research related to Artificial
Intelligence. This period also saw the revival of connectionism in the work of several scientists.

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 Expert Systems in 1985-87: were developed by Edward Fiegenbaum and his students. It uses logical
rules derived from the knowledge of experts to solve problems in a specific domain. One of its most
common applications (output) is the diagnosis of infectious diseases. For this, it takes spectrometer
readings as the input and then uses some logical rules and expert opinions (processes) to arrive at the
output. Their simple design made it relatively easy for programs to be built and then later modified once
they were in place. An expert system called XCON was saving about 40 million dollars annually by 1986.
Corporations around the world began to develop and deploy expert systems and by 1985 they were
spending over a billion dollars on AI, most of it to in-house AI departments.

 1990s: Neural Networks: Two discoveries on learning paved the way for the future of AI. First of all it
was proven that a form of neural network could learn and process information in a completely new way.
Around the same time, David Rumelhart popularized a new method for training neural networks called
"back-propagation.” Neural networks became commercially successful in the 1990s when they were used
for speech recognition.

 1997 Deep Blue: In 1997 IBM developed a computer named Deep Blue that played chess. In its first
match against the Grandmaster Gary Kasparov, it managed to defeat the grand master! Even though chess
is highly algorithmic, Deep Blue had to predict hundreds of competitive moves and doing logical thinking –
indicating that such computers could be highly ‘intelligent.’ Such super-intelligence could eventually
develop a mind of its own. No matter how we have programmed it, if it acknowledges itself, it will pretty
quickly figure out how to alter its programming and formulate its own goals. And while we will probably
never know what those goals are— and could not understand them if we did—they are pretty likely to
include a desire for more and more computing and reasoning power.

 2000s: Medical Applications – Artificial Intelligence began to play a major role in the medical industry
especially in rural areas. For e.g., automated systems were established in remote villages where it was
difficult to provide a 24-hour regular doctor service from the cities. This machine would have the history
of the patient diseases, symptoms and their duration. So whenever, a person is ill he/she could be
recommended on the basis of the symptoms, past medical history etc. without having a medical
consultation with the doctor. Else such information could be passed down to the doctor in the city from
where he can advise the patients. This information would then be recorded in the medical history of the
patient stored in the machine. AI advanced in terms of detection, prevention and prediction of diseases
with more confidence.

 2005: Daily applications – Smartphone is a perfect example of how we use AI. While we text or message
we automatically get suggestions based on our past input history. This reduces a lot of effort and saves a
lot of time. Similarly, if we take a picture, artificial intelligence algorithm identifies and detects the
person‘s face and tags him a Facebook.

 2010s: Industrial applications - Artificial Intelligence is used extensively by financial institutions and
fraud detection agencies to determine the likelihood of a person committing fraud. Credit rating agencies
such as Visa, Mastercard extensively use these tools to predict default rates. As we move towards greener
equipment and technologies, companies such as BOEING and Airbus extensively use sophisticated
software to predict materials that could function as effective corrosion inhibitors for their aircraft parts.
Most food and pharma companies also use this platform to develop best quality food products and discover
newer medicines.

 2010s: Repetitive and dangerous tasks – Many tasks on the shop-floor are repetitive and dangerous for
e.g., blast furnaces, hot steel rolling, long products, and steel press. Such tasks can be easily automatized to
improve productivity and reduce the number of accidents.

 2010s: Further medical advances: Robotics is often used to help mental health patients come out of
depression. Another application is in radiosurgery. Radiosurgery is used in operating tumors and this can
actually help in the operation without damaging the surrounding tissues.

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Current Wanton AI Developments
 February, 2011: IBM introduces Watson, its self-learning AI tool. It is a question answering computer
system capable of answering questions posed in natural language specifically developed to answer
questions on the quiz show Jeopardy!

 2014: Beating the Turing Test: Advancements in the Artificial Intelligence domain have made computers
so sophisticated that they are blurring the gap between human and machine. In 2014, a computer program
that simulated a 13-year old boy and went by the name Eugene Goostman actually beat the Turing test.

 December 1, 2014: Amazon introduces robots in its warehouses after acquiring Kiva Robotics LLC in
2012. As of 2017, more than 30,000 robots work in Amazon warehouses.

 Sept 14, 2016: Self driving Uber cars are on the road taking passengers from point A to point B in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This was after Uber acquired Otto, a self-driving automobile company.

 Oct 25, 2016: Otto, the self-driving automobiles start up acquired by Uber makes its first delivery of
50,000 Budweiser beer cans over a time of 2 hours. Self-driven cars have already started to show
themselves in the streets of USA and Europe. Waymo, Google’s driverless car company, has started
running autonomous minivans around the streets of Phoenix with no human involvement whatsoever.
Waymo is also experimenting with self-driving trucks for long hauls along interstate highways. Currently,
more than 3.5 million truck drivers haul cargo on U.S. roads. Waymo’s headway in this field poses a threat
to these drivers and many more.

 April 26, 2017: Infosys launched Nia, their integrated artificial intelligence platform. This was an upgrade
to their AI platform Mana which was launched a year ago in 2016. Infosys started their foray into AI in
2014 after investing USD 5.5 billion in the high growth sector. The Mana platform leveraged AI to perform
repetitive tasks such as aftersales services, sales planning process etc. This reduced the time and man-hours
required to do these tasks for many clients in engineering, F&B and telecom sectors.

 November 7, 2017: Waymo, formerly known as Google self-driving car project becomes the first company
to provide cab hailing services without a driver to take over in case of emergency in Phoenix, Arizona,
beating Uber in the race to creating fully functional automated cars.

Advantages of AI
AI has many beneficial applications in the modern era of turbulent markets, with the most significant
ones being:
 Automate processes which require laborious and repetitive manual work with great accuracy and
precision while maintaining almost a zero error and zero defects rate.
 AI is being used for space exploration purposes in the form of rovers controlled from GS.
 Intelligent robots are being programmed and used for exploring the nadirs of the earth for mining
and exploration purposes.
 Fraud detection in smart card-based systems is possible with the use of AI in the banking sector.
 Digital Assistants and chatbots are being used by organizations to improve customer engagement.
 Smartphones are a great example of the use of AI to make our daily lives easier.
 Robotic pets can help patients with depression and also keep them active.
 In the medical field, AI is being used to replace intrusive surgical procedures and surgery simulators
are being used to train professionals.
 Self-driving cars could drive the change in the automotive sector.
 The greatest advantage of artificial intelligence is that machines do not require sleep or breaks, and
are able to function without stopping. Hence they are being employed in areas which are considered

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 risky and dangerous for humans.
Disadvantages of AI
For each advantage of AI there is a corresponding cost or disadvantage that might often exceed the
advantage. Major disadvantages of AI are as follows:

 One of the main disadvantages associated with AI is the loss of jobs and economic displacement of
people affected with job losses.iv
 There might come a point where the costs of using machines might be cheaper than employing
humans. Switzerland had recently tried to introduce the concept of a universal basic income of 2500
Swiss francs. But this backfired as citizens were against it.
 One other aspect that is stressed upon is the lack of empathy and feelings in machines. They lack a
human touch and might not be able to perform jobs that require these qualities like caring nurses,
doctors, teachers, coaches, mentors and guides.
 Another factor is that when societies become too dependent on technology, humans begin to lose the
skills that technology has replaced. Prior to pocket calculators, math problems were written out by
hand. Students learned basic mathematical concepts that helped them solve complex problems. But
now students use calculators to help them achieve their answers, and they are losing the ability to use
their mathematical problem-solving skills. It does not stop there. Medical science proves that muscles
that don’t get enough exercise, break down and atrophy with time.
 Countries and Governments, if left unmonitored are highly likely to use AI for the wrong reasons.
Nations like US, Russia, Israel and China are seeking to develop Autonomous weapons technology,
capable of independently determining the course of action without human intervention.

The main advantage of automation and why it is being pursued is that it reduces costs of human
labor and increases quality of products and services. And also, it makes the life of humans easier by
making things simple. On the other hand, it robs away people’s jobs and increases unemployment and
decreases the welfare of the people.

AI will not Automate all Jobs

Automation has been a tool of growth for centuries. More recently, the fourth industrial revolution
had its base in AI and automation which fuelled growth and generated a lot of employment opportunities
as firms grew in size and required a lot of manpower to support it. Once the growth started staggering,
firms pushed for more automation leading to a reduced dependency on humans and cutting down of jobs.
Another factor stunting growth is the mismatch between skills required for further innovation and the
skilled manpower available in the market. Here the reinforcing loop is a push to AI and automation and
balancing loop is unskilled manpower. A joint effort would be required by both the government and the
private sector in terms of revamping education and training, income support and safety nets, as well as
transition support for the people dislocated i.e., a focus on the limiting factors to overcome the problem of
growth for both the firms as well as the overall economy.

Most jobs (60 percent) contain activities that can be automated, but the degree of automation potential
varies, according to the McKinsey Global Institute. Some jobs appear safer: people-managing positions
(just 9 percent automation potential), gigs that apply expertise and creativity (18 percent), and professions
involving unpredictable physical work (25 percent). The most vulnerable workers are those responsible
for data collection or data processing (64 percent and 69 percent automation potential, respectively) and
those tasked with predictable physical work (78 percent). Sewing machine operators and agricultural
product sorters and graders are deemed to be 100 percent automatable. v

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 Almost all jobs and occupations can be automated to some degree, says Mehdi Miremadi, partner at
McKinsey and coauthor of the reports on automation. "But just because the technology is there doesn't
mean that your job definitely will get automated," he says. "While it's true that, within 10 years from now,
the tasks we perform today will likely involve more interaction with robots and machines, we estimate
that it will take up to five decades before close to half of all economic activities could be automated."
(See Endnote v)

The pinnacle of human endeavor, in many forms would be the perfect marriage of data and machines:
collecting and processing unimaginable amounts of data and processing them and then designing systems
to make lives better and simpler and easier using that data, all of which is done flawlessly using
machines. This is roughly what artificial intelligence is - the perfect marriage of data and machines.

Forrester, an American market research company headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts in its

last year report (p. Forrester 2021) attempted to quantify how the Internet of Things (IOT), Artificial
Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR and VR) will change the world by 2021. vi
It conservatively estimates to a net job loss of 6% and identifies sectors such as logistics, transportation,
and customer and consumer services to be most prone to these job losses. Recently, the discourse on this
topic has gained much traction and the figures quoted are way higher. The resilience of the humans to
create more jobs with each rise in technology right from technology revolutions in the textile mill to
industrial revolution, computers and the rise of information technology and technological solutions also
features on the other side of this debate.

The Great Potential of AI

Table 7.1 sketches the potential and actual impact of AI on various industries. The record of
potential impact is very high; actual impact is steadily increasing, but not threatening humans. As never
before, AI is at the cusp of parting roads of dehumanization versus human civilization, wanton luxury of
the 1% versus equitable opportunity for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness of the 99%, of a Third
World War versus global peace, division versus unity, chaos versus harmony, exclusivity versus
inclusivity, inhumanity versus human solidarity. We cannot leave this crucial choice to only business
tycoons or political powers, not even to the free enterprise capitalist systems (FECS) and the “invisible
hand” of the global markets. We must design and implement national and international and
intercontinental systems of reflection and discernment, creativity and innovation, vigilance and adventure,
wisdom and prudence, transparency and honesty, integrity and justice, legality and ethicality, and above
all, morality and spirituality.
[Table 7.1 about here]

The starting point of this game-changing epoch and strategy is education. The core challenge of any
educational institution should be to offer an education that develops intellectual rigor, academic
excellence, and personal character, without collapsing the tension between these by emphasizing one at
the expense of the other. Good education is about developing persons with the brains to make a difference
and the hearts to want to do so. Good thinking and good character are both equally important in any
education – and they are dynamite when found in the same person. The education we offer must aim to
supplement and complement knowledge of the good, the true, and the beautiful with the desire to do what
is good and true and beautiful. Education should prepare a new generation prepared to deal with tougher
times by relying on a solid foundation of values.

In this regard, education in B-schools can make a tremendous difference. Education in a B-School
should be a life-changing experience that can happen on and off campus, in and out of the classroom or
campus as students are pushed to engage new and challenging ideas, experiences, and perspectives. Who

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and how we choose to be in the world is, in some sense, conditioned by what we know. It is a truism that
where we stand determines what we see, and whom we talk to determines what we hear.

The computing power of the machines has increased manifold and artificial intelligence is now
smarter than ever before. Cloud services can recognize patterns from extremely large pools of data and
anticipate and predict tasks, activities and events. Big data analytics will provide context awareness to
machines and cloud computing may remove the need for bulky devices – a receptor to collect input data,
a medium to transfer data to the cloud, collection of processed information from the cloud and reporting
for the user. Artificial intelligence with its large capability of machine learning and neural networks will
further enhance capabilities of machines to understand and recognize more data, observe patterns where
there needn’t have been any. Contextual intelligence can help it identify whether the connections
established through data are random, sequential, association, correlation, necessary condition, sufficient
condition or cause.

The entire automotive and logistics industry is at risk because of automation. Apart from drivers
losing their jobs, technology will affect others as well. Tesla Motors is on a path to build a vast network
of electric cars and supercharging stations. These stations, which recharge electric batteries using solar
power, will put petrol pump operators out of business in the long run. All toll booth operators might also
lose their jobs as newly produced cars come with automatic sensors to deduct the toll.

Further, in the logistics industry, few start-ups have emerged which use algorithms and AI to conduct
fleet operations. Everything from vehicle tracking, truck routes, variable load matching etc. will be
monitored and executed by a machine.

Some other common examples that we experience in our daily lives include applications such as
Amazon and Netflix. Amazon has used artificial intelligence to maximize revenues over the past few
years. Their tech team constantly refines its algorithms more and more with each passing year, allowing
Amazon to become extremely accurate at predicting consumer purchasing behavior. The next step in
innovation by Bezos is an algorithm which would ship products to customers before they even know that
they need those products. Essentially, Amazon is looking to quench the need before it even arises. Along
similar lines, Netflix uses a very powerful recommendation engine for its video streaming services. It
analyses terabytes of records to suggest films to a viewer based on previous reactions and choices. Netflix
engineers work every day to figure out better ways to capture maximum value from their viewers by
tweaking the algorithms as and when required.

The LEMS Challenge of Artificial Intelligence to Corporate Ethics

“The major challenge of the sixties is to maintain full employment at a time when automation is
replacing men,” said President Kennedy in 1961. We are facing the same situation once again, and
multiple times than before, but mankind will come out on top again. Workers have been periodically
replaced by machines because of the benefits presented – the immense time and cost saving being the
most emphatic ones. These are multiple points to ponder and discuss.

Legal Aspects of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence and its robotics and automation potential have indeed influenced human life in
numerous ways and are prognosticated to do the same in the near future and beyond, due to its potential
of creating disruption in every sphere of human life. Through innovative products – robots in different
industries like Watson by IBM in pharmaceutical industry, banking sector and similar other industries,
followed by Internet of Things (IOTs) which have changed the way humans see the world and interact

10
with the surroundings. These benefits come as boon to humans along with cost attached – the livelihood
of humans, through unemployment in different industries across nations.

The labor force can be bifurcated into two distinct categories to study the effects of artificial
intelligence – routine and non-routine; and artificial intelligence, through automation and the extensive
range of new products and services, has all the potential to take away the routine jobs. Martin Ford in his
book “Rise of the Robots” predicts a dire future of joblessness as even the complex tasks of a senior
manager can be reduced to a sum of simple routine tasks which can be performed by machines. This
particular scenario plays out negatively for the lower level non-routine tasks of cleaners and janitors as
well. However, how feasible is it, not at least in the short to medium term, as the cost is too high and
advantage not commensurate.

Artificial Intelligence follows multiple layers of machine learning, namely, supervised learning,
unsupervised learning and reinforcement learning. Except for the first of the above three options,
machines do not require, at least not in theory, further supervision. However, a pattern followed by
automation over time is the increase in number of jobs in allied sectors. With computers came jobs in
software industry, graphic design, animation, and so on. When automation sped up one aspect of the job,
workers were enabled to do better in other aspects. Automation in shopping through e-commerce websites
was expected to reduce the total job opportunities; on the contrary, the demand for a wide variety of
goods and services has increased, thus increasing the number and amount of required labor. The same
demand increase shall apply to many other data intensive scenarios such as legal history or cases. We
may not fully predict where new jobs will be created by AI technology. When cars replaced horses, a
number of horse-related jobs decreased, but the new jobs were not limited to cars directly. Hospitality
industry witnessed a boom; hotels and restaurants came up and offered more employment opportunities.
A study by the International Federation of Robotics reports that the number of robots per 1000 workers
have increased from 0.4 to 1.4 in the US. However, there is only a weak correlation between the number
of unemployed and the number of robots.vii

A better paradigm to measure the impact is the effect on tasks rather than jobs. Another study by
James Manyika for McKinney Global Institute in January 2017 estimates that only a fraction of less than
5% of tasks consist of activities that are 100% automatable. We therefore see a pattern where the
productivity effect cannot be accurately predicted and where the displacement effect is evident but not to
the scale of global unemployment; i.e., a strong correlation is observed between A (AI) and
unemployment B, but there is no obvious causal effect between A and B that is expected or strictly
predicted with significant confidence.

To get a deeper understanding of the dynamics involved with this issue, McKinsey Global Institute,
the Business and Economics arm of McKinsey Company, conducted a study to research on economic
impact of AI and innovation. This study named A Future That Works: Automation, Employment and
Productivity was published recently in January 2017. Advances in Artificial Intelligence have reached to
such a level that it has inculcated cognitive abilities too in it.

Few of the important outlines of the Study were as follows:

 Automation makes business sense by reducing error, improving quality and in some cases achieving
outcomes beyond human capabilities. It would boost the economic growth and prosperity and in
parallel help offset the impact of reduction of the working age population in any given nation.
According to the study automation could raise the productivity by 0.8 to 1.4 percent annually.

 Automation has a potential to replace 30% activities among 60% of total available occupations,
where the people employed have a total wage of $16 trillion. That is, more occupations would be

11
 changed than automated away.

 Activities most susceptible to automation involved physical activities in highly structured and
predictable environments. Thus, it points to manufacturing, accommodation and food services, retail
trade and some other middle-skill jobs.

 Though the performance benefits of automation are relatively clear, yet it poses issues for the policy
makers. They must embrace the opportunities for their economies to benefit from the productive
growth potential and put in place policies to encourage investment and market incentives to promote
continued progress and innovation.

 Innovative decision making should be developed to help workers and institutions to adapt to the
impact on employment. Main focus can then be defined as education, training, income support and
safety nets, as well as transition support for those dislocated.

 Hence, at an individual level, people need to engage themselves more with the machines as part of
their day to day activities, and in parallel acquire new skills that would be in demand in new
automation era.

There are other important factors affecting pace and extent of adoption of AI into different industries
and respective activities:

 Technical Feasibility – Technology has to be invented, integrated and adapted into solutions for
specific case use.
 Cost of developing and deploying solutions – Hardware and software cost.
 Labor Market Dynamics – The supply, demand and cost of human labor affect which activities will
be automated.
 Economic benefit – includes higher throughput and increased quality, alongside labor cost savings
 Regulatory and social acceptance – Even when automation makes business sense it can take time to
implement.

Other major economic and legal benefits of AI include:

Machine Learning, and Big Data: Given that much of business and commerce has moved to the online
platform it has resulted in the availability of massive amounts of data. With the help of AI such data can
be analyzed and used to improve existing systems and processes. For example, a manufacturing plant
employing data analytics software that maps and analyses its processes can identify areas of
underutilization or redundancy and improve overall efficiency and productivity. Similarly, through data
analysis, machines that have to deal with uncertainties can be taught how to improve their functioning
through predictive learning. AI has also revolutionized advertising and marketing through customization
and customer history and demographic based personalization. This improves a consumer’s purchasing
experience and helps boost the organization’s revenues through greater consumption.

Modeling and Medical Forecasting Natural Phenomena and Epidemics: Weather predictions and
modeling tools are aided significantly by AI and data analytics. This has a direct impact on climate data
available to the public. Natural calamities can also be predicted sooner with better accuracy. Furthermore,
agriculture is reaping significant benefits when AI can accurately predict rain trends much in advance.
Drone technology is also giving meteorologists wide access to various terrains at low costs. This drone
technology can now be used to predict epidemic outbreaks. Artificial Intelligence in Medical
Epidemiology has led to the development of a platform that can predict outbreaks of fatal tropical
diseases nearly three months in advance. This is done by combining past research with data of insect-
borne disease and factors such as population density, wind velocity, amount of rainfall etc. The

12
probability of an outbreak is then estimated to the extent that the epicenter of the disease spread is
estimated up to a 400-meter radius.

Medicine and Healthcare: AI has a significant impact on the various facets of medicine and healthcare.
The entire process of diagnosing and predicting diseases is changing with the help of AI. An iterative
machine-learning based diagnostic system can revolutionize healthcare due to increase in accuracy of
diagnosis, reduction in cost, and most importantly, the ability to detect chronic diseases much earlier and
accurately thereby increasing the chances of control and cure. Continuous online tracking of patients’
health and non-invasive monitoring will lead to better overall health as well as decrease mortality rates by
predicting the onset of diseases such as heart attacks through early symptoms or the ability to alert
medical authorities in case of incidents such as strokes. Mapping of genes and the ability to process
genetic data of thousands and millions of people is allowing researchers to understand the fundamentals
of human biology and research in a completely new way. Medical breakthroughs in terms of drugs and
treatments are also benefiting from AI.

Restorative Applications: AI can expedite medicinal business particularly in rural regions. For example,
mechanized frameworks can be set up in remote towns where it is hard to give a 24-hour general
specialist benefit from the urban areas. This machine would have the historical backdrop of the patient
infections, side effects and their span. So at any point, if someone is sick they could be prescribed on the
premise of the side effects, past restorative history and so on, without having a medicinal conference with
the specialist. Alternately, such data could be passed down to the specialist in the city from where he can
prompt the patients. This data would then be recorded in the restorative history of the patient, in the
machine.

Ethical Challenges of Artificial Intelligence

Today, the world is increasingly moving online and, as a consequence, Artificial Intelligence has
become an inevitable part of our day-to-day lives. Due to the extent of its integration with human lives,
various ethical issues have been identified. One major issue is the potential of artificial intelligence to
improve human lives at the cost of mass unemployment.

Optimizing logistics, composing art, detecting fraud and conducting research - AI systems are
transforming our lives for the better. All these projects in the field of AI look very beneficial for the
human race in the short as well as long run, however, at the same time there are various controversies
surrounding AI which makes it risky as well as ethically questionable.

The ethical debates surrounding AI and human unemployment are extremely intriguing due to their
double-sided nature. On the one hand, the threat of AI to substitute or replace human labor is extremely
real and large. According to an analysis by McKinsey & Co. 45 percent of the activities people are paid to
perform today could be automated by technologies currently existing today. Furthermore, with the
technologies and AI developments available today, 60 percent of all occupations could see 30 percent or
more of their constituent activities automated.

Today, however, the jobs under threat are the routine and mechanical low skill jobs where the use of
technology and robotics can lead to significantly higher productivity and efficiency. The Changing
Precision Technology Company, located in Dongguan, China, recently replaced 90% of its human
workers with robots, going from employing 650 people to a mere 60. Although a significant number of
workers suffered job losses, the shift to robot based operation led to a productivity rise of 250% with an
80% reduction in defects. A similar trend of replacements of robotics in manual, technical, and highly
knowledge-based jobs is being seen all across the world. Although this seems like a natural step by

13
companies to decrease costs and increase profit margins, it is a mere premonition of the shape of things to
come.

Other ethical issues related to AI are:

In-biasedness: Intelligent machines will embody values, assumptions, and purposes. These machines are
prone to various biases such as data-driven bias, interactive bias, emergent bias, similarity bias etc.
Therefore, it becomes imperative to think carefully and explicitly about what those built-in values are
before using expert systems in a decision making capacity. A bank loan advisor expert system, for
instance, would not be prejudiced against any specific client groups unless its data and inferential rules
were biased in the relevant way. A program could be written so as to embody its programmer's prejudices,
but the program can be printed out and examined, whereas social attitudes cannot.

Inequity and Inequality: In a scenario where tech-enabled robot works along with human workforce,
then who will get paid for the work robots will do? The entire revenue will be concentrated with a handful
of people leading to widening the already huge income gap between haves and have-nots. This will
worsen the already existing problem of inequity and inequality.

Moral Challenges of Artificial Intelligence

Any moral judgment on AI and an analysis of its moral challenges will imply some basic
understanding of the history of AI and its evolution or revolution thereafter. The fear and angst hovering
over AI is very similar to what humanity experienced when it went through the four revolutions of the
first steam engine in 1784, invention of electricity in 1870, world information technology in 1969, and the
invention and diffusion of the Internet in 1993. All four revolutions involved new machines and
technologies, more automation and robotics, more job losses and skills obsolescence. Yet humanity
bounced back from angst and temporal disruptions to new creative innovations and new job enrichments,
new products and services, new markets and industries, renewed growth and prosperity. The fifth
revolution of artificial intelligence will be handled by humanity with equal creativity and imagination,
innovation and venture, humility and magnanimity. We may need to explore and conquer higher domains
and purposes of humanity and equanimity, faith and hope in humanity, and sustainability and respect for
the planet and the cosmos, than ever before.

Each of the first four revolutions, considered first as a threat, was welcome in industries, it spurred
new industries, new products and services, generated much employment, productivity and prosperity.
Historically and morally, we should expect the same with the fourth revolution: the AI without
unnecessary panic and preoccupation. The fifth revolution of AI has come a long way since the concept
was first introduced in 1956 within a very short duration compared to the other revolutions.

When AI is deployed to specific tasks that involve human bodies and morals such as predicting sex
during pregnancy, aborting unwanted children, passive and voluntary mercy-killing or euthanasia, or
some genetic manipulation, then each case must be judged for its legalization and decriminalization, by
country and state within the country.

Further, if AI and related technologies are exploited only for cost containment and profit
maximization, then that will breed skewed wealth accumulation, disproportionate power leveraging of the
superrich, massive layoffs owing to automation and robotization, extravagant consumption by the few,
wasteful luxuries of the richest, aggressive competition among business ventures, global trade wars
(already on between China and USA), economic invasion of global markets and opportunities (as being
done by China), nuclear proliferation and global wars (as staged by USA and North Korea), ending with

14
gross income and social inequalities, inhuman structures of injustice, global destruction and cosmic
impoverishment.

On the other hand, we can all rally together to make this world a better place for all, with nobody left
behind, if we tame and control the AI revolution to put people first, global sustainability second, and
profits and wealth accumulation last. The technology in itself is not destructive; human tendency,
however, to design technology in order to harm other humans is massively destructive.

The dawn of AI civilization must decide with humanity which way to go: the path of wealth
aggrandizement in the hands of less than one percent of global population and the remaining 99%
scraping the bottom of the pyramid, or reverse the trend and progress toward a human civilization we will
be proud of to leave as a legacy to our posterity.

When two systems such as AI and non-AI are competing with each other with equal resources, one
gets better off and the other one worse off. When they compete again, one of them now has an unfair
advantage and gets better again. This goes on in a loop and one system gets better and better and other
one gets worse and worse. This creates a loop wherein if one increases the other decreases. This happens
in part because when one system does better, we tend to allocate more resources to it as it seems to better
utilize them. This phenomenon is called “escalation” fallacy. We also tend to pull resources from the low
performing system making it more inefficient over time and ultimately non-productive assets. This
problem can be solved by considering both the systems as one system and allocating resources equally so
that the whole system improves.

Mostly, the brunt of automation is being faced by those who are involved in predictable physical
activities and who do not have the resources to upgrade their skills. People who are involved in high-
skilled jobs are the ones who are going to be able to retain their jobs. Since they are going to be the most
efficient and relevant workers, they are going to be invested upon for skills up-gradation. Further these
technologies would provide services that are going to improve people’s lives but they won’t come cheap.
So, the workforce which has already been neglected will not have the means to use these services and
further worsen off and the skilled workforce will become better and better. Again, this problem could be
avoided by effective public and corporate policies formulated after carefully considering the system as a
whole and not as two isolated systems that have to compete with each other.

Most human life and welfare are at the core of every advancement in technology including
automation and AI. But we need to address the question of machine over man. Also, as this is a radical
thought, it is better to consider it apart from the question of better life even though they are well
connected.

Spiritual Challenges of Artificial Intelligence

At one of his addresses, US president Lyndon B. Johnson while talking about the impact of AI on
economy and employment declared that automation did not have to destroy jobs but “can be the ally of
prosperity if just looked ahead.” The pace, extent and impact of automation (in the long run) will be
different in different industries and activities. Many industries, namely manufacturing, retail trade,
banking, as well as those that involve collection and processing of data would require the workers to work
alongside the machines. Some forms of automation will be skill-biased, tending to raise the productivity
of high-skill workers even as they reduce the demand for lower-skill and routine-intensive occupations,
such as filing clerks or assembly-line workers. Other areas of automation have disproportionately affected
middle-skill workers. As technology development makes the activities of both low-skill and high-skill
workers more susceptible to automation, these polarization effects could be reduced by diverting human
time and efforts to spiritual and happiness enhancement.

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 November 4, 2017, speaking at the Web Summit in Lisbon, the now late Stephen Hawking came out
openly against AI. Addressing the engineers sitting in the room, while warning the whole world, Hawking
opined “We cannot know if we will be infinitely helped by AI or ignored by it and sidelined, or
conceivably destroyed by it. AI could be the worst invention of the history of our civilization that brings
dangers like powerful autonomous weapons or new ways for the few to oppress the many. AI could
develop a will of its own, a will that is in conflict with ours and which could destroy us.” viii

At the same time, Hawking also said that AI could be highly useful in reducing poverty, diseases and
restoring the environment, and that it is impossible to predict what we might achieve when our own
minds are amplified by AI.

Before Hawking, Elon Musk a revolutionary innovator and founder of several technology start-ups,
had voiced his concerns regarding Artificial Intelligence. Addressing a meeting of the governors, he said
“AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization. I have access to the very most cutting-
edge AI, and I think people should be really concerned about it.” He has also warned that Google is
creating “a fleet of artificial-intelligence-enhanced robots capable of destroying mankind.” ix

Elon Musk is concerned that AI based systems and other automation technologies are soon going to
replace most human jobs and that countries would need to adopt basic income programs in order for
people to be able to sustain their livelihoods with the advent of the AI revolution . Mass panic broke out
all over the internet following this statement as people began to understand the far reaching future
potential of developments and advancements in AI.

These individuals are not alone. Apart from them, Bill Gates, Sundar Pichai and other bigwigs of the
tech world have voiced their concerns about Artificial Intelligence. They have openly talked about how it
could be a threat to mankind if not used and controlled appropriately.

With introduction of AI, routine transactional operations have been automated and more Siris will
emerge ultimately for use. As a replacement or alternative measure, it is predicted that algorithmic skills
and right brain skills will be in demand such as Big Data, design thinking, ideation, strategic thinking,
building and ideating concepts for new product design and development, HRD coaching and mentoring
will be high on demand. The Gen X will be most impacted in this situation since they will have to adapt
to newer technologies. Thus in order to sustain in the Fourth Industrial Revolution of Artificial
Intelligence, they will have to redefine their ways of working with respect to the millennial peoples.

In this sense, market turbulence induced by AI is positive and laden with opportunity. It will force a
paradigm shift from the current transactions-exchange based management curriculum, skills, routines,
cases, models and strategies (that can be easily outsourced to AI companies), to transformation-
relationships maximization based management and dynamic humanization curriculum of new ideas,
ideologies, values and meanings, principles and convictions, mental models, mind-sets, concepts,
constructs, theories and paradigms that could not be outsourced to AI industries, at least not for the next
five to ten years (Mascarenhas, 2011).

AI will ethically, morally and spiritually impel us to return the basic classical understanding of
human dignity and its higher purpose of immanence and transcendence, humanizing and equalizing
civilizations, higher forms of social and functional equalities, better and more collaborative (than the
current competitive and aggressive) forms of human bonding and belongingness such that we move
forward to global and borderless trade and development, new products and services design that civilize
and humanize us, such that we progressively head towards higher forms of human global solidarity,
harmony and peace.

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Artificial Intelligence Contributes to Better Life
Better life is a metric that is difficult to quantify and measure, so it is being split into a few others
such as Health and Longevity, Happiness and Wellbeing: The advent of high precision robots which can
work in highly stressful environment reduces and in many cases removes the need for people to work in
dangerous situations. Also, strain associated with a physically taxing job can be removed. Accordingly, a
lot of people may reap physical health benefits from AI.

It is also to be noted that automation will help in moving towards far more efficient modes of energy
production where wastage is significantly lesser compared to the present. The utilization of the energy by
the industries would also improve significantly. Imagine a situation when the driving behaviors of every
vehicle is perfectly adherent to a fixed set of rules, this is what Artificial Intelligence in driverless cars
aims to achieve. The pollution levels will be lower in such a scenario. There shall also be a positive effect
towards the health of large sections of people especially the young and the old. There will be
improvements in the medical field by leaps and bounds. Surgeries may never go wrong due to
implementation error and drug dosage delivery would be precise to the nearest Nano gram. Longer life
therefore is assured. There is also the mental health gained when people can move out of purely
mechanical jobs which provides no satisfaction in terms of creativity as there is no room for any.

However, can the eventual health of a person or a society be predicted? Motor cars were seen as a
boon in Paris not only because of its style and speed but also because the city could move away from the
horses whose dung was polluting the city and making roads unbearable for pedestrians. The thick smoke
from the cars was felt to be lesser nuisance. So, what if all the improvements made men lose respect for
their life, what if we did not take care of our physical and mental health? Much as the thicker boxing
glove makes one throw harder punches to the head, will the added improved environment and medical
facility contribute positively to create a better human being or will it just lead to a complacent situation
where health is ignored? Both are possible and the recent consciousness towards healthy lifestyles
suggests that people will take good care of their health. Then it becomes obvious that people would
choose healthier life whether or not artificial intelligence with its cutting-edge inventions in pathology or
surgery or pollution reduction brings a positive external environment. Hence it can be concluded that
while Health (B) is correlated to the Artificial Intelligence and its automation and robotics potential (A), it
is not a causative relation.

AI will make education accessible and affordable. Technology and its efficient delivery ensures that
education reaches all levels of society at a global level. The implication and advantages of education is
manifold. We will have better citizens and better professionals who would all lead far more productive
lives without hampering the world, people and society around them. However, is artificial intelligence a
mandatory condition or even a requirement for education or its reach? Even with the present levels of
advanced communication, education can reach possibly all sections of people. AI may reduce the cost
needed to be invested in high level learning and research work. Hence, there is only an association
between Education (B) to the Artificial Intelligence and its automation and robotics potential (A) and
there is no correlation directly perceived.

Going through various views and research outcomes, it is clear that Artificial Intelligence, Virtual
Reality, Augmented Reality, Deep Learning; Big Data are the next big thing in each and every sphere of
human life, influencing the business at every step. This would ease the processes and human effort,
demanding increase in the skilled labor, while replacing middle and most of the unskilled labor. However,
this would be short run impact, while in the long run, with the implementation of the technology, there

17
would be demand for auxiliary works which would create possibilities of new job opportunities as has
been observed in history too.

The effect of automation can be understood to be working in two opposing directions, i.e. positively
and negatively, and the cumulative effect of both these needs to be analyzed. This can be rephrased as the
productivity or creation effect wherein new jobs are created in sectors or industries due to rise in
automation (the positive) and the displacement effect where jobs are lost to machines as employers or
industries choose machines over men to improve their efficiency in terms of time, cost, accuracy, and the
like.

Concluding Remarks
From the period of Industrial Revolution (between 1760-1850) that significantly changed the
dynamics of labor, to the current scenario when about 5 million factory jobs in the U.S. have been
eliminated since 2000 (88% of which were due to automation as reported by a university study), AI has
always been a boon as well as bane for the common people. x The causes for each instance, however, were
very different. The development of trade and the rise of business were major causes of the Industrial
Revolution whereas, droughts during the Great Depression forced people to seek jobs in factories and, the
sheer nature of humans to strive for betterment has been the cause of current developments in AI. xi

Multiple experts have expressed their concern over the total loss of jobs that may occur due to the
rapid technological advancements in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Among those who are against an
unrestricted advancement of Artificial Intelligence are Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk and Peter Norvig.
The possibility that artificial intelligence may end up becoming harmful to mankind should not be
discounted; the same should be kept in mind during further developments in this area.

AI has been able to achieve incredible accuracy through deep neural networks. Google photos,
Google search, and Google maps are all based on the deep learning technique. The more you use them it
keeps on getting more accurate. For example, in the medical field, image procession and object
classification is now used to find cancer in MRI scans with same accuracy as that of highly trained
radiologists. More than technique, data plays a major role. Data itself has become an intellectual property.
By just applying AI algorithm one can get hidden answers from data. Having best data in industry is of
utmost advantage at this peak time because the one with best data is ultimately going to win over others.

It is interesting to note that with the passage of time and exposure to multifarious stages of dynamic
emotions, human beings started adapting themselves to their external environments in a way which
maximized their comfort: be it material comfort through accumulation of resources, emotional comfort
through interpersonal interactions, sexual comfort through mating or spiritual comfort by believing in a
faith or a supernatural force. These maximization endeavors resulted in the development of everything we
know today. Material comfort maximization prompted human beings to start hunting for food which
eventually transformed from tools-making to online food delivery which we know today. Emotional
comfort prompted human beings to develop languages so that they could talk with each other and express
what they felt which eventually transformed from cave-paintings to voice-keyboards which we use today.
Spiritual comfort maximization led to the invention of religion which later transformed into whatever
religion (and the related non-religious activities) has left us to think about it. xii

Questions of when artificial intelligence will surpass human intelligence are now redundant. There
are machines that can perform better calculations, analysis, decision making and even chess matches than
most human beings. Does that mean that machines will definitely evolve into super-intelligent creatures
over a century capable of controlling the world? Unlikely, as the creators, i.e. the humans, during the time

18
of further development, will be bringing in all aspects of safety, security, privacy and human dignity
required to implement artificial intelligence as well. Elon Musk recently commented that Artificial
Intelligence is ‘vastly more risky than North Korea’. This must not be seen in isolation and treated with
alarm as it is an acknowledgment of the possible harm artificial intelligence may bring to the humans.
This will only help in improving the situation of security and safety.

Artificial intelligence, unlike the narratives in movies, is not set to become evil, rather machines may
set goals that diverge from that set by humans. Also, it is not just robots and drones but any device that
can connect to the various communication channels that can affect the humans. There is a chance of
machine becoming smarter than humans and them controlling us much like how we control pets, but these
are years or decades away. There is ample time to plan ahead and devise strategies and safety measures
to prevent a Frankenstein.

Lastly, applying the LEMS analysis to AI, we revisit the four questions:

 Legal: Is AI doing the legal thing? Following the Law of the Land? Doing something decidedly
beneficial for the society and the nation?
 Ethical: Beyond the legal, is AI doing the right thing for the economy, society, nation and the globe?
Are they better alternatives that are less harmful and more beneficial than AI?
 Moral: Beyond the right thing, is AI doing the right thing rightly? For instance, is it the best time to
rush it? Is it done for India given its massive populations and poverty levels? Should national and
international governments intervene such that right things are done rightly?
 Spiritual: Beyond the legal, ethical and moral, is AI doing the right thing, rightly, and for the right
reasons? As long as AI is patronized by hedge funds for cost containment via massive job losses and
for profit maximization with no decided benefits for the marginalized millions, the right reasons
may not be spiritually valid.

We have discussed all four aspects of AI in much detail. The reader should be able to respond to
these four questions, as also add one’s own knowledge and experience of AI in doing so.

19
 Table 7.1: Assessing the potential impact of AI on various industries
Basic Target Computing Impact on Human Potential Impact on Actual
Dimensions & or derived domains Skills Specific Industries Impact on
Domains of of AI Specific
AI Industries
Machine Deep Learning High-skill statisticians Management market Initial
Learning Research Industry
Predictive Analytics High-skill data analysts Management Data Strong
Analytics industries
Translation Middle level-skilled Management Initial
translators communication industries
Natural Classification and High-level interpreters Management Hermeneutic Weak
Language Clustering and taxonomists Industries
Information Extraction High-level Inferential Strategic problem-solving Strong
Processing
Strategists Decision making industries
(NLP)
Speech to Text High-level Interview transcription Quite strong
transcriptionists industries
Speech Text to Speech Middle level Text to speech industries Initial
communications such as PPT, YouTube,
Social Media industries
Expert Systems Knowledge expert High knowledge skills High tech knowledge Strong
industries
Skills Experts High skilled routines High tech routines Very strong
industries
Market Scanning and High market scanning Market scanning skills and Initial &
New Product Designing and NDPP skills NPDD skills industries rudimentary
and Developing (NPDD)
Planning Planning Systems for High NDPP Planning High NDPP Planning Strong
NPDD systems Systems Skills Skills industries
Scheduling and
MPDD Market High NDPP decisions, High NDPP decisions, Initial and
Organization Decisions and choices choices and choices & deliberation promising
deliberation skills skills industries
Consequences of Responsibility skills for Moral responsibility skills None
Choices choice outcomes for choice outcomes
Robotics for Low-high level Low to high level Very strong
Mechanized structured mechanized skills (e.g., mechanized skills
Robotics routines logistics, industries
transportation,
diagnostics, surgery)
Robots for unstructured High level non- High level non-mechanized Initial
and non-programmable mechanized unstructured skills
routines unstructured skills industries (e.g.,
exploratory and
emergency medicine)
Image Recognition Middle-level image Middle-level image Strong
Vision recognition skills recognition skills
industries
Machine Vision Low level machine Low level machine vision Very strong
vision recognition skills recognition skills
industries
Mission, values and High-level mission with High-level ethical and Very
Mission and moral and ethical ethical and moral skills moral mission skills rudimentary
Goals Setting principles industries
Goals setting and Middle-level goals Middle-level goals setting Promising
predicting outcomes setting and predicting and predicting skills
skills industries

20
End Notes

21
i
The history of AI can be dated back to 1936 when the British logician and computer pioneer Alan Mathison Turing described an abstract
computing machine with limitless memory, consisting of a scanner that moves back and forth through the memory to modify or improve
its own program. This is now known as the Turning Machine, which is essentially the concept behind all the modern computers.

ii
Hern, A. (2017, September 4). Elon Musk says AI could lead to third world war. The Guardian. Retrieved from
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/04/elon-musk-ai-third-world-war-vladimir-putin

iii
Major bottlenecks to AI’s earlier Growth were: a) Limited computer power - The most significant limitation of artificial intelligence in
its initial phase was the limited computer power available for computation. Computer vision applications were strained because of this
limitation. A typical supercomputer in 1976 cost around $5-8 million with speed only in the range of 80-130 MIPS; b) Intractability and
Combinatorial explosion - The earlier limitation was compounded by the fact that most problems could only be solved in exponential
time. As a result with the technology available at that point of time, it required enormous amount of time even to do basic combinatorial
computations; c) Common knowledge and reasoning - Advance applications like image processing and language processing require a
large amount of data to be stored in the database. At that point of time, no one could build such a large database and people were also not
aware of how to use such a vast amount of information; and d) Frame and qualification problems - With the technology and interface that
was available, AI researchers could not represent the logics that they wanted to implement. Consequently they had to build alternative
logics that could be incorporated into the system with the existing technology

iv
Historically, technological advancement was always perceived as a threat to employment especially of the masses. The Luddites during
the industrial revolution vehemently opposed the textile mill automation through machines and steam engines. The clerical staff and the
officers of all the Indian banks had opposed the computerization process. However, the productivity of the industry increased, demand for
product and services increased and the jobs became easier for the employees as well. Direct new jobs such as maintenance and repair of
machines became evident and indirect ones such as extended and varied services such as improved and targeted customer service and the
sale of insurance was now possible in a Bank branch. An ATM installed reduced the manual labor required for cash handling by more
than half. A World Bank research has predicted up to 69% jobs are being threatened by Artificial Intelligence in India alone. Complete
elimination or at the very least marginalization of jobs is inevitable. Mr. K.R. Sanjiv, Chief Technology Officer of Wipro, said: “If it
(automation) is not planned well and addressed holistically, it is a disaster in the making.” Decisions need to be made today to ensure
smooth transition from the current jobs that is in all likelihood going to take place within the next decade.

The Steel Industry illustrates this law perfectly. Nearly 400,000 people have lost their jobs in the Steel Industry between the years 1962
to 2005. This is due to the conscious decision made to lower costs by replacing costly manual labor with automated machines. In the last
few years, software companies have reduced their workforce significantly eliminating thousands of jobs every year. This has given rise to
trade unions in software industry to protect people’s jobs. Even in the manufacturing sector, the growth at which new jobs are being
created is decreasing year by year and the entire assembly lines are automated thus leaving many people jobless. This rise in
unemployment is decreasing the welfare of the people who have lost their jobs and many people could lose their jobs in future as well.

v
Manyika, James, Michael Chui, Mehdi Miremadi, Jacques Bughin, Katy George, Paul Willmott, Martin Dewhurst (2017, January). A
Future That Works: Automation, Employment, and Productivity. McKinsey Global Institute, McKinsey & Company. Retrieved from
https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Global%20Themes/Digital%20Disruption/ Harnessing%20automation%20for%20a
%20future%20that%20works/MGI-A-future-that-works-Executive-summary.ashx

vi
Forrester Predicts IOT, AI, AR, and VR will change the Tech world by 2021. (September 12, 2016), Forrester. Retrieved from
https://www.forrester.com/Forrester+Predicts+IoT+AI+AR+And+VR+Will+Change+The+Tech+ World+By+2021/-/E-PRE9464

vii
Will robots displace humans as motorised vehicles ousted horses? Probably not, but humans have a lot to learn from the equine experience (2017,
April 1), The Economist. Retrieved from https://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21719761-probably-not-humans-have-
lot-learn-equine-experience-will-robots

viii
Crofts, Andréa (2017, November 6). Notes from #WebSummit: Opening Address from Stephen Hawking: The impending impact of AI
on humanity: for better, or for worse. Retrieved from
https://medium.com/web-summelier/notes-from-websummit- opening-address-from-stephen-hawking-442bb4305ff4

ix
Morris, D.Z. (2017, July 15). Elon Musk Says Artificial Intelligence Is the ‘Greatest Risk We Face as a Civilization’. Fortune.
Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2017/07/15/elon-musk-artificial-intelligence-2/

x
Lehmacher, Wolfgang (2016, November 8). Don’t Blame China For Taking U.S. Jobs. Fortune. Retrieved from
http://fortune.com/2016/11/08/china-automation-jobs/ . Wolfgang Lehmacher is head of supply chain and transport industries at the
World Economic Forum.
xi
The Fourth Industrial Revolution Gains Momentum. Circuit Insight, Electronics Assembly Knowledge, Vision & Wisdom. Boston
MA, USA. The painful period we've been in since the dot-com bubble burst in 2000 represents a predictable transition. It's like the Great
Depression-a period when economic institutions are fundamentally reshaped to meet the demands of the new revolution: Just as the Great
Depression had market crashes in 1929 and 1937, the so-called Great Recession had them in 2000 and 2008.

xii
What is still more interesting is that the abilities which we take today for granted is a cumulative effort of the natural forces teaching us
how to respond. This forms the essence of Natural Intelligence: the abilities which nature has endowed us through genetic evolution in
enabling human lives. Artificial Intelligence is the extension to that very notion. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the art of enforcing
evolutionary learning in a non-living body in a revolutionary time-frame so that the object responds with an equal or even enhanced
panache as compared to human-response when subjected to instances of natural stimulus.